Video: Deaf boy, 3, hears for first time

Grayson Clamp looked surprised when he heard his father say, “I love you.” These are the first words this 3-year-old boy ever heard.

The look of wonder that overcomes a 3-year-old deaf boy’s face when he hears his father’s voice for the first time will bring tears to your eyes (see image above and video below).

Grayson Clamp of Charlotte, N.C., is the first child to ever receive an auditory brain stem transplant. Until last month, Grayson had never heard a single peep and now his ears can take in all the sounds around him.

“I’ve never seen a look like that,” said Grayson’s father, Len Clamp, of the day that the implant was turned on for the first time. “I mean, he looked deep into my eyes. He was hearing my voice for the first time. It was phenomenal.”

Len and his wife, Nicole Clamp, fostered Grayson when he was a newborn and eventually adopted him, even though he was medically challenged, according to CNN. Grayson was born without a cochlear nerve and as a result couldn’t hear.

The Clamps had him fitted with cochlear implants but these didn’t work. And then the Clamps heard about a trial study at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. Auditory brain stem implants that were used in adults would be tested in children. The Clamps immediately signed up and last month Grayson was the first child to ever receive the implants.

In the trial, nine more children will receive the implants and then the FDA will consider the safety of the procedure and decide whether to expand the study.

“Seeing him respond, that had a lot of feelings for me,” said Dr. Craig Buchman, one of the doctors who helped perform the surgery. “I felt like there was a potential that we were effectively changing the world in some ways.”